Call for Papers for a Special Issue of the University of Toronto Quarterly

Guest editors: Heike Harting and Smaro Kamboureli

Discourses of Security, "Peacekeeping" Narratives and the CulturalImagination in Canada

A TransCanada ProjectIn 1957, Lester B. Pearson's Nobel Peace Prize not only marked theCanadian invention of the UN Blue Helmets, but it gave rise to Canada'sself-reinvention as a nation dedicated to international peacekeeping inthe service of human compassion, responsibility, and protection. As thehistorians J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer ironically remark, "ifnations must have images, it is certainly better for Canadians to thinkof themselves as umpires, as morality incarnate, than as mass murderersor warmongers" (Empire to Umpire 350). As global umpire, Canada hashelped establish a new global and martial humanitarianism, whilesystematically ignoring the ways in which peacekeeping remains a deeplyimperial project rooted in discourses of race and exclusion, nationaland global security, and moral affect. Recently, Canada's new defensepolicy A Role of Pride and Influence in the World has stressed Canada'sinternational "responsibility to protect," while fostering globaldevelopment and relative national autonomy. Peacekeeping narratives,then, constitute cultural engagements with Canada's ambivalentinvestment in humanitarian discourses of protection abroad and at home.On the domestic plane, these narratives intersect with discourses ofsecurity and insecurity and signal the rise of a "new racism" whichtranslates cultural difference into racial stigma and diasporic segmentsof the population into native informants. Whether focused on Canadiansociety or dealing with Canada's role within the global community, alarge number of Canadian cultural representations such as those in filmand literature reflect the ways in which peacekeeping, protection, and(in)security complicate Canada's self-image in interesting ways.

For this special issue, we strongly encourage interdisciplinary papersthat offer a critical dialogue between cultural texts (e.g., film,documentaries, literature, media presentations, public inquiries) andpolicies. Contributions may be about the following issues:

* different cultural and indigenous genealogies of Canadian discoursesof militarism, (in)security, and humanitarianism (from the Boer War toKosowo and Somalia)* "new racism" and "peacekeeping narratives" (Sherene Razack)* peacekeeping narratives: Somalia, Rwanda, and the Oka crisis* the intersections between Canadian discourses of security,citizenship, and diaspora* Legitimizing discourses of unease and fear: the cultural technologiesof Canadian defense policies and the politics of affect* the ways in which the moral and economic values of neo-liberalismoperate through racialized violence and perpetuate a perceived need formilitary intervention* Gender, military intervention, and peacekeeping narratives* the "politics of protection," "white civility" (Daniel Coleman), andmilitary prevention* security, citizenship, and nation narration

Send papers to:

Smaro KamboureliDirector, The TransCanada Institute,School of English and Theatre StudiesUniversity of GuelphGuelph ON N1G 2W1